Supporting Inclusive Business in Base of Pyramid Markets

STBY is working with the Inclusive Business Accelerator on a series of toolkits, combined with training modules, to strengthen impactful entrepreneurship in Base of the Pyramid (BoP) markets. This project was focused on supporting local SMEs and public sector organisations, who want to further expand their inclusive business and/or inclusive innovation activities. Inclusive means ensuring a positive economic and social impact on entrepreneurs, companies and low-income consumers.

In this partnership we have so far developed two toolkits: the first one aimed at expanding inclusive business, and the second aimed at innovating inclusive business. Both toolkits have been developed and tested with local partners in Vietnam, Mozambique, and Uganda.

The Inclusive Business Accelerator (IBA) is a partnership between several NGOs, such as BoPInc, SNV and VC4Africa. These organisations all have a long history of working with local organisations in BoP markets. Since the initiation of IBA, many other partners have joined the international consortium. They are supporting the IBA activities through funding, staff or other resources.

STBY was asked to help the consortium partners develop a set of toolkits that can be practically applied in various cultural contexts and include clear instructions for use. From the first engagement with the toolkit, its users should be motivated to use the tools on a regular basis. The toolkits are intended to be used by trained local consultants who are coaching SME’s in the ongoing development of inclusive businesses.

The first toolkit is aimed at expanding Inclusive Business activities. It comprises of a set of tools, with clear descriptions and practical worksheets, as well as a set of more detailed guidelines for the local business consultants. The toolkit includes proven and tested tools, where necessary adapted to the BoP context.

The second toolkit is specially developed to support innovation in BoP markets. As an innovation process is difficult to capture into a set of tools, an introduction explaining general principles on Inclusive Business Innovation, and a selection of appealing case studies have been added to the toolkit.

STBY orchestrated the development process for both toolkits. We conducted several work sessions with the international consortium partners, where we jointly reviewed and discussed the contents and format of the toolkit. We were also responsible for the overall editing, design and production of the prototype toolkits that were used and tested in 3 local markets. Based on the feedback from this test we revised some of the tools and delivered the toolkits for final production.

Upon engaging STBY, IBA expressed a need for a coordinator with expertise on Human Centered Design, and experience in creating visual and engaging results that can be easily applied. Based on our previous experience with making internationally recognised toolkits (e.g. This is Service Design Thinking, DIY Toolkit, Innovation Accelerator) we were identified as the preferred partner to work with.